Angels never lose the vision of God, Angels: Day 020

Angels never lose the vision of God

Angels are limited in place: they cannot be everywhere at once. So when they are sent to us, how do they still behold the face of the Father? St. Gregory the Great answers that they keep the vision of God before them in contemplation.

Well, now we’re adding one question to another. When we try to un- tangle the loop, we’re only tying a knot. How can the angels either always be in the presence of the Father, or always behold his face, if they are sent on their missions for our salvation?

But we will find this easier to believe if we remember how subtle the angelic nature is. They never go so far away from the vision of God that they are deprived of the joys of inner contemplation. If they did lose the vision of the Creator when they went out, they could never have raised up the fallen or announced the truth to those who were ignorant of it. They could not give the blind that fountain of light if they were deprived of it by leaving it behind.

This is how the nature of angels is different from our nature in its present state: we are limited by space and hemmed in by the blindness of ignorance, but the spirits of angels—though they are indeed bound by space—have a knowledge that extends incomparably far beyond ours.

So they do always behold the face of the Father, yet at the same time they come to us. As a spiritual presence, they go out to us; but they always keep them- selves there in the place from which they left, by their inner contemplation. –St. Gregory the Great,  Moralia in Job, 2.3

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Even though I do not have the subtle nature of the angels, do I try to keep the vision

of God before me as much as I’m able?

CLOSING PRAYER

Fill my intellectual vision with the light the angels see, gracious God, and make me worthy to serve you in the world.

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